Sunday, December 30, 2012

This first one comes to us from Akirevo: Sketchy art of Schwer-Muta. I find the style and overall presentation very adorable, somewhat fitting for Schwer's own personality.

I'm sure a few of you longtime SaSA followers may recall seeing this chibi Spiritia a few years back. Well, this art of Freudia's... er... backside is from the same author: 割と普通. It could be just about summed up with any of my standard complement phrases. Old, but still enjoyable.

Sunday, December 23, 2012

Before I dig into the art showcase, I want to wish everyone on Schwer and Schwer Alike a great and happy holidays. With that out of the way, it should probably be worth mentioning that this post will stick with stuff on deviantART, in comparison to pixiv as with my prior two fanart showcases. So the overall quality of the art itself my differ, but I have a job to do.

And where else to start than with this group shot of Tia, Freu, and Lilli, drawn by Haychel. For something on the English side of the community, it's very well done, the way the backdrop is done makes the image look like a painting, and I particularly like how accurate the characters are appearance-wise to the source material. The glow effect used on Lilli is also a great effect dome with no problems.

By now everyone knows of Grolla Seyfarth's overall similarities to Zero from the Mega Man games, so eons later here's another Grolla & Zero art, this time from Drawloverlala. This time Zero is based on his Mega Man Zero appearance, and a couple of the details in Grolla's design and colors could be improved on, but this still remains a concept ripe for expanding on, placing the characters of Rosenkreuzstilette next to their original design influences.

I'm positive that anyone whom has searched up Rosenkreuzstilette has seen something from Glacs.fz at least once. Here's his recent Pamela Arwig art, with some (albeit minor) touchups to her original design. Good one as always~

And after that, comes probobly the first art in the showcase to just have some fun. Freudia and Spiritia playing with Pocky sticks. The way Spiritia's tie and hairband are colored blue reminds me of the way blog follower ShivaDF re-designed her several years ago. Somehow this art, especially Tia's confused expression makes me chuckle.

Remember how I said that after Freudenstachel launched people liked to pair up Freudia and Pamela? This art from Mr. Mail is one of these pair-ups: Chibi Freudia and Pamela in battle poses. Pamela's outfit seems a little too red, but the adorable style, facial expressions, and use of effects make up for this.

I need to apologize if the attempts at translating the author's names are inaccurate; I have no knowledge of the language.

And now here's something I've been wanting to show since I first began: custom portraits of the original Rosenkreuzstilette, plus Karl. They are very accurate to WOMI's own art style and could fit just about anywhere within the games. If you want to see the rest, I recommend trying this search.

Saturday, December 8, 2012

Today, WOMI updated the [erka:es] devblog with a rather interesting download just below this charming picture of Freudia. If you have RKSF installed on your computer but want an extra challenge, download the .exe located just below the picture and place it in the same location as the main Freudenstachel files. It's the same old Freudenstachel, but now you start only with 1HP. Make any mistake and you're virtually done for. Couldn't get any more detailed than that. Life pellets, capsules, and Cross Tanks are eliminated, but in contrast, 1UPs are more common, and checkpoints are more plentiful. EDIT: Turns out there aren't any changes to the checkpoint system, they're all identical to the standard RKSF.

Sunday, December 2, 2012

Hello everyone. Here's a new segment on Schwer and Schwer Alike that I'd like to present: The weekly fanart showcase.

Basically put, this will be a series dedicated to showing the best of what the fans of Rosenkreuzstilette around the globe have to offer, running once every Sunday. And thanks to Freudenstachel, the rate of fanart production encountered a slight acceleration, mostly with art depicting Freudia and Pamela, however, so I can still have fresh content for the next entry, I will only do a few at a time.

Let us begin with this adorable animated pixel art from aliceandsven, depicting Schwer-Muta with Zeppy on top. A very lively piece of work; as the animation of Schwer's eyes blinking is very fluid and well-detailed, and the colors selected are very valid.

Anyone that has stuck with the series for quite some time knows shizuku, one of the winners of the character-designing contest held long ago, with her creation Strudel. Starting in April, she's been on a roll, drawing just about the entirety the female cast another time to join all her other art of the RKS, but her stuff from post-RKSF's release shows multiple drawings of the Dark Magi (her Pamela art pictured above), her Eifer and Refrakita Twins art being dead giveaways to spoilers found later on in Freudenstachel. shizuku's art style continues to be heartwarming; one of which she executes flawlessly. If you want to see the others, here is a direct link to her Rosenkreuzstilette-related content.

What follows is solo art of Lebiea from "Cl Kobo", that in itself is very well-done, with the detail and charm coming through the use of shading and highlighting, which I feel reflects Liebea's overall innocence. Simple but effective.

And that's it for today. I'll be back with the second run next Sunday.

I created a "How to buy Rosenkreuzstilette" page and linked it on the sidebar via the button on the right (labeled [buy:rks]). That page used to link directly to the DLSite page for Rosenkreuzstilette, but now, it links to a small directory with links to the individual games. It's just a small detail, but it should make things a little neater. Go click the button, and give it a look!

Monday, November 19, 2012

As I mentioned in the comments, one of my contacts at J-Box has come through on his word. Starting today, the online retailer will be stocking and selling hard copies of Rosenkreuzstilette Freudenstachel!

I've
been shopping at J-Box for years, so I can vouch for their
reliability. Their visual novel and import game catalogs are pretty
impressive, and they'll knock 15% off the total price of your order if
you order three or more English-translated visual novels (I recommend Go Go Nippon, Kira Kira, and Aselia the Eternal myself).
Just keep in mind that they have two offices - one in Japan and one in
San Diego - and that your order may arrive in two separate packages if
some items are in stock at one office but not the other.

...Yeah,
I said I'd include these details in my next audio announcement, but I
decided this is good news that couldn't wait for me to get my hands on a
decent microphone.

Sunday, August 12, 2012

We're reaching the end run of Freudenstachel's development, and I'm really excited about that! I'm sure you guys are as well, as we never thought this day would come. The final touches are being put on the game, with package design creation and playtesting going on. When will see the release of the game? Who knows, actually. Comiket 82 has essentially passed, and according to the blog, WOMI has no plans to appear at this winter's Comiket for anything, so we may very well be seeing a straight-to-stores release, possibly even a DLsite release with it. We'll definitely see how that goes.

In the meantime, are you playing The eXceed Collection released by nyu media on Steam recently? You may have already played the series or something, but if you didn't actually buy it, go show your support by grabbing it, because it's really good. Well, the first game sucks, but 2nd and 3rd are fantastic. eXceed 2nd is pretty much "moe Ikaruga", and eXceed 3rd is INTERSECT THUNDERBOLT, so get to it! So yeah, play that for a while (and some Ys too, I guess!) as we wait for the release of the long-awaited Rosenkreuzstilette Freudenstachel. We'll keep you posted!

Friday, July 27, 2012

Sorry for the radio silence on my end these past few months. It's a long story - one that sounds more like a third-rate soap opera than a half-decent excuse, so I'll spare you the details for the time being. Suffice to say, crippling real-life problems (and some inexplicable browser issues) have severely cut down on my online presence at Schwer and Schwer Alike for the past while.

On the bright side, the downtime has allowed a lot of projects-in-the-making to start to bear fruit. I'll be making an official announcement in the next few weeks about the ones directly related to Darkside Translations and our projects (naturally, that includes Rosenkreuzstilette). Before that, though, I'd like to shine a spotlight on a few developments that I'm sure those of you with good taste in entertainment can appreciate.

It's no secret that Ys is my favorite video game series of all time. As a huge fan of Castlevania, The Legend of Zelda, Metroid, Kirby, and Megaman, that's saying quite a lot. Long before Mint and I teamed up to localize Rosenkreuzstilette, I had the honor of working with Falcom Fan Translations' Jeff Nussbaum and Nicholas Livaditis to help bring the series to the English-speaking world. As you can imagine, we were psyched when XSEED Games announced that it had secured the English-language rights to the series' PSP entries, and I was even more excited to learn that they wanted to use Jeff's scripts for the official English versions of Ys I & II Chronicles and Ys: The Oath in Felghana.

I'm tempted to go on a fanboy rant here, but I think I'll let the games speak for themselves.

As of this writing, XSEED has released Ys I & II Chronicles (PSP), Ys: The Oath in Felghana (PSP / Steam), Ys Seven (PSP), and Ys Origin (Steam), as well as Falcom's amazingly well-written The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky (PSP). I highly recommend checking them out.

NEWS FLASH: For the next 24 hours (ie: until 1:00pm Eastern tomorrow), the Steam version of Ys: The Oath in Felghana is just $5.09, so grab it while you can!

You might remember that, back in May 2012, my friends at No Name Losers released a full English localization of the visual novel ef - a fairy tale of the two. What you might not know is that, since then, ef's original developers have joined forces with the group to give the title a commercial English release (NNL is officially "A division of minori Inc."). Moreover, several members of Darkside Translations are credited for their contributions (including yours truly, though my name only appears in the ending credits).

The first half of the story, ef - the first tale, goes on sale at MangaGamer.com today (warning: this link is not work-safe). If you missed the opportunity to check it out last time, you now have another chance.

I'll be at Otakuthon 2012 in Montreal next weekend (August 3rd through 5th), both as an attendee and as an event host (you can find me with my co-panelists at "An Introduction to Visual Novels" and "The 2011-2012 Visual Novel Review" - and, yes, Katawa Shoujo will be featured in both panels). If you're in the area, be sure to drop in and say "hi".

That's all for now. Once Otakuthon is out of the way, I'll get cracking on our next big announcement.

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

For those that haven't read the earlier comments posted in the previous blog posts, it seems that Pamela Arwing will be taking the helm as the Rosenkreuzstilette Freudenstachel's "Zero". Yes, the Black Cross' head Dark Magi, of all magic-users. Just yesterday, WOMI has shed some light (literally and figuratively speaking) of the bonus game's title with a new screenshot of game's title screen. [erka:es] would like to present to you all Rosenkreuzstilette Weißsilber. How will Pamela play out in her side-game, and will she'll anything like Grolla in the previous game? Only time will tell when the game hits Comiket sometime this year.

P.S.I apologise for the lack of activity/contributions here at Schwer And Schwer Alike. Many of you youngsters out there are blessed with freedom of having your own personal computers (be it a desktop or laptop, and your operating system is Microsoft Windows or Apple Macintosh) while I am absolutely NOT one of the lucky ones (or even the wealthy ones for that matter) to have that kind of privilege. Even as we speak, I'm using the Wii's horribly outdated Opera Internet Browser to make a blog post for the first time, and I can tell you all that the newer versions of Google's Blogspot doesn't like this internet browser. As much as I want to share the screenshots of the recent updates of the games, there are things you cannot do with this thing. So please, bear with me on this...

Monday, June 18, 2012

Hey, guys. Life is busy and stuff, and I haven't had the time to keep up with WOMI's blog and post about RKS-related news. However, I see that a few of you are keeping up with it and are posting about it int he comments sections. Would any of you be interested in becoming a writer for the site? I could use the help. Post a comment, or drop us a line at grollschwert[at]gmail[dot]com. Please and thank you.

Monday, May 21, 2012

At Reitaisai 9, Sumikaze Midi of Project LT will be releasing a new Whiterockman Letty doujinshi. As far as I can tell (and this is a pretty loose interpretation, so bear with me), it will be a prologue to the upcoming game. There's something about a possible reprint of the original doujinshi, but I'm not entirely certain of whether this is that reprint or if it will be provided at his booth as well. Again, loose reading. I just wanted to post this.

Monday, April 23, 2012

We here at Schwer and Schwer Alike would like to extend a warm welcome to Nene Ayatsuki, the newest member of the RKS voice cast. She will be voicing both Rink and Lecht Refraktia for Rosenkreuzstilette ~Freudenstachel~, and in listening to her voice samples, I have to say that I think she’ll fit right in. Congratulate her and give her your best regards on Twitter, if you would be so kind, and listen to the sample page on her site by clicking the small banner.

Friday, April 20, 2012

It never really occurred to me that they’re all blonde-haired. Whatever the case, this is a pretty amazing piece of art by 暗月の故障者, and you should definitely click the picture to see the full version of the image. Also worth checking out are our new Facebook Timeline cover image (“Like” us and go check it out), as well as Spritia with -1 lives from another artist, who actually has some pretty awesome (and hilarious) RKS fan art. What are you waiting for? Check it out!

Thanks to SaSA reader Axl007, Rockman Ciel caught my attention, and I must say I’m impressed but by no means surprised. Ciel was pretty great, after all, and making an entire project around her seems like something that needed to happen. Rockman Ciel seems to be an entire multimedia project that includes a Zero-based fan game in progress, a full art series on pixiv, a Web Radio series, and even a project concept art book with full character backgrounds and scenario history. It seems like a pretty ambitious and crazy project, and I hope to see it come to fruition. My hope is that it doesn’t suffer the same fact as Rockmen R, which swiftly received the C&D hammer from Capcom and is no longer available. We’ll see how that goes.

You may remember Hisaoman, the (arguably tasteless) Katawa Shoujo fan game with a Rockman touch. It turns out that this game was supposed to be released shortly after the release of the game early this year, though the forum thread stated “around this November (2011)”. There hasn’t been a lot of news concerning development, and it almost seems like the project may be on the backburner, as his latest post on Newgrounds seems to be more concerned with Ragnarok sprite animation. However, KS hasn’t been completely forgotten, as he released Katawa Shoujo: Symphony of the Feminists back in February, which features a Rockman-sprite Miki. The game itself is really silly and pretty fun, though the SotN PSX-inspired dialogue leaves a lot to be desired. Well, if anything comes up with this project, we’ll definitely mention it here. This is really turning into a Mega Man fan game blog, isn’t it?

I’ve been looking to change up the site layout a little bit by adding links to the sidebar and implementing pages, most notably with information about obtaining and working with Rosenkreuzstilette. Currently, I’ve added links to the Rockman-inspired various fan projects, as well as related blogs, including the re-addition of zaku6’s. I imagine I’ll be able to clean this up a lot by adding an overall “Link” page. I really want to revamp the sitenav and get everything as neat as possible. In addition, I will need some help from some of SaSA’s readers concerning my "RKSclopedia” project. I plan on moving the wiki entirely away from Wikia and setting it up on Google Sites, which looks a lot neater and will give us a lot more control to prevent future problems and speculations when Freudenstachel comes out. We’ll have a basic gathering of all character and scenario information for the site, and compiling and editing will be done as a group over Google Docs. Once that’s all said and done, we’ll get the ball rolling. The RKS Wikia isn’t going anywhere, obviously, and will undoubtedly be updated as the series goes on. That’s fine. I just want to have the most accurate and well-maintained wiki possible based here on SaSA. I figure that’s reasonable enough. I’ll try and get that WOMI interview done soon, when my friend who can help me with the translation stuff isn’t busy.

If you would like to help with this project, please inquire in the comments or e-mail us directly at grollschwert[at]gmail[dot]com. Let’s continue to improve Schwer and Schwer Alike as the best RKS resource on the net!

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

With the Twitter account mysteriously still suspended, TEN has opened up an official website for Project LT. Listed on the website are the main staff members of the game project; in addition to Sumikaze Midi (character designer) and TEN (music composer) are Takopi (background design) and Kogarasi sk (main programmer). All four members of the project appear to be pretty talented artists, with Takopi especially good at pixeling. All in all, this is looking pretty promising, and SaSA will continue to keep you up-to-date on new developments.

Monday, April 16, 2012

The Project LT Twitter is currently accepting questions and comments concerning Whiterockman Letty. If you guys have anything you want to say to the Project LT devs, send them a line via Twitter. The best part about it all is that you don’t have to run anything through or by a translator. They are accepting and will respond to and in English, so the language barrier is broken! What are you waiting for?

On the RKS side of things, WOMI seems to be making progress on Freudenstachel. He appears to be working on the voice acting aspect of things, so the scenario/script side might very well be done. This is good news! With this level of progress, we’re definitely looking at a C83 window, and I, for one, think it will be worth the wait. So yeah, there’s your update. Enjoy~

Edit: The Project LT is currently experiencing problems, as Twitter seems to be suspending the account for seemingly no reason at all. Until that gets settled, feel free to post questions here, or send whatever you want to ask to the SaSA Twitter account, and we’ll relay the questions their way when it gets fixed.

Saturday, April 14, 2012

Project LT, the Touhou-based Mega Man-style fan project starring Letty Whiterock, has launched an official Twitter account for updates on the project (it’s got a really cool avatar, too!). In addition, the official flash site has been updated with Cirnoman (pictured right), complete with Ride Armor. The picture to the right links to Sumikaze Midi’s pixiv page for the image, so be sure to check it out for the full version. Show your support by following them, as well as Project LT, on Twitter and by posting below. They’re reading this, after all!

I guess SaSA now has two big things it’s following, and we’ll be doing our best to keep you posted on both!

Thursday, April 5, 2012

So there are two really cool guys in the Japanese doujin scene named Sumikaze Midi and TEN. Why are they so cool, you ask? Because they are currently working on something amazing. Back at C78, Sumikaze created this a really cool-looking doujinshi called “Whiterockman Letty ~Dr. Okuu’s Ambition~” (you can see samples of it here), and TEN uploaded a promotional video for it on Nico, featuring a chiptune version of Letty’s theme and sample pages. All in all, it’s a pretty cool thing. Well, now, there’s a website with an unfinished flash animation featuring two characters: Whiterockman and Momijiman, who appear to be the Touhou equivalents of X and Zero, respectively. There are currently 7 open slots for Cirno, Hong Meiling, Hina Kagiyama, Parsee Mizuhashi, and Yuyuko Saigyouji, and no one has been given any information yet. Could this be an upcoming doujinshi series? Or perhaps, with TEN composing music tracks and posting them on his Twitter, could we be seeing the makings of a new Megaman-style platformer? A fun project, or the game that we’ve been waiting for to fill that MegaMari X-shaped hole in our doujin-loving hearts? It’s definitely worth keeping your eyes open for this one!

Follow Sumikaze and TEN on Twitter, and keep your eyes peeled for updates to the ProjectLT hashtag. This could be pretty amazing, and I’m not just saying that because I’m Letty Whiterock. Well, maybe I am a little bit.

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

This was a long time coming (as I haven’t been able to find someone to TL English to Japanese for me; I took matters into my own hands), but I finally sent off an e-mail to WOMI about an interview. I just got a response saying that he’s cool with it and will answer any questions that he can. With that exciting news, if you guys have questions for WOMI, please write them in the comments below. Yes, I know I’ve asked this before, but it’s actually kinda relevant now, so ask away! Please be within reason, and be respectful. Thanks!

Thursday, February 9, 2012

So I’m thinking of starting a podcast dedicated to RKS, doujin gaming, and general ridiculousness. Would you guys listen to a weekly or bi-weekly show? Accompanied art is by まさきち. Click for the big version on Pixiv!

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

If you follow Mega Man fan game news, you’ve probably heard about Rokko-chan, the amazing full flash game MM tribute featuring the namesake moe Mega Buster girl. If you haven’t, give the game a shot. It’s quite good, has some neat challenges, and should appease you a little bit while you wait for Freudenstachel. However, there’s another fan game that may have slipped under your radar, and the only reason that *I* found it is because I have terrible ideas and like searching to see if other people have terrible ideas too.

So the answer to that quiz I promised you guys and never gave is that Lilly is indeed the best character in Katawa Shoujo, but maybe you disagree. Maybe you didn’t like Lilly very much. If so, then boy do I have the game for you! Meet Hisaoman, a Katawa Shoujo-style NES Mega Man clone, brought to us by Newgrounds user ShadowWhoWalks. The only objective in the game is to defeat Lilly, named Blind-tan in this game. You only have a single-shot Mega Buster (where you fire pills instead of bullets), and you can’t slide. The controls are simple (though the mechanics make the game a bit floaty), and overall, the game is very easy. However, it’s worth it to give it a shot and see how it ends when you win.

By the way, I’m not a fan of the X2 soundfont, but Flame Stag’s stage theme is always awesome.

Thursday, January 19, 2012

I’ve been making more social networking adjustments to the site, because I seem to think that it’ll actually do something. Who knows? Maybe it will! I’m hopeful, anyways. If you haven’t noticed already, there are now social buttons under the resources section of the sidebar. That way, you can more easily access our Twitter feed, the new Facebook page, or our Google+ page. My hope is that we can really improve Schwer and Schwer Alike to make it the best site it can possibly be for one of the best game ever to grace the doujin market. To our loyal SaSA readers and followers, as well as Rosenkreuzstilette fans in general, please spread the word. Oh, also, now that the social networking stuff is in place, maybe we can start holding contests a lot more easily? Also, feel free to communicate more with us. If you find some RKS art you want to share or maybe just want to tell us how awful we’re doing at our jobs, by all means, use the tools provided to let us know. Get the word out. We’re all fans of RKS, and without you guys, this place would be in vain. We exist for you guys.
Thanks a lot, everyone, and look forward to more updates in the future!

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Don’t ask how I got this. I’ll leave those surprises for later. Until then, enjoy this little preview. Also, as a note, Strudel does not function properly at all. I’m not entirely sure what she’s supposed to do, but she’s pretty worthless as she is right now. Oh well~

Monday, January 9, 2012

In response to a tweet by Kira Buckland, a great voice actress who is gracious enough to be a part of the RKS dub project, I’m going to be plugging the Voice Acting Club Forums. It appears to be a pretty active community with some pretty talented people behind it, and hopefully, we can find some more amazing people to help us get the RKS dub project pointed further in the right direction. So yeah, check them out, sign up, give some feedback, and have fun! Also, keep playing Katawa Shoujo. There will be a test at the end of the month on whether or not Lilly is the best character. (Hint: She is.)

Sunday, January 8, 2012

Schwer reader and RKS fan Mhakk Como has been posting some interesting stuff on our SaSA Facebook group. A lot has changed in the newest web trial from the inside, so we can no longer access the other weapons due to exploiting the password system. However, Mhakk came up with a brilliant work-around. Using a replay from a previous demo build, we get to see Freudia try out some new weapons. The first one appears to be an updated version of Eis Lanze, and the second one looks like an icy version of Geister Wand. To be honest, that’s a little disappointing, but maybe there will be some special gimmick and not just a snowflake Schwer shield. The third one is a bit of an enigma. Supposedly, it’s what you get from Trauare, but we’re not really sure what it does. We’ll have to see what happens with that one. Finally, there didn’t seem to be any update on the weapon you get from Dolis. It’s still invisible, so we’re still left guessing. Still exciting, though!

The final release is just around the corner, and all our questions should be answered then!

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Comic Market has come and gone, and, unfortunately, [erka:es] wasn't among this year's attendees. In other words, Freudenstachel isn't ready for release just yet. Personally, I'd rather take my time and do things right than rush through and do a half-assed job, so I have to respect WOMI's course of action even if it means keeping us waiting a while longer.

Since I'm sure at least a few of you have more free time on your hands than you'd like, I have just the thing to keep you entertained in the meantime. The freeware visual novel Katawa Shoujo has just been released to the public today. Those of you that know me well are aware that I've been looking forward to Katawa Shoujo for a long time now, so I'm glad to see that the title has finally been completed. Normally, I'd gush over what it's about right now, but this is one case where I think the work speaks for itself.

Congratulations to the guys at Four Leaf Studios. I'm sure RAITA would be proud of what you've been able to accomplish. I certainly am. Bravo, guys!

Please note that if you aren't over the age of 18, then Katawa Shoujo probably isn't something you'd be interested in.

Site Introduction

Where in the world are you? I'm glad you asked! Welcome to Schwer and Schwer Alike, the main English blog site for all things Rosenkreuzstilette (RKS for short). RKS is a Mega Man clone doujin game created by [erka:es] and is a much-needed piece of work in a world where Capcom won't release Mega Man Universe or Legends 3.

Formerly a duo, [erka:es] is currently a one-man show run by WOMI, the series main artist. There's a link below to their main website, if you're so inclined, and if you're interested, you can try the game's English demo or purchase it at DLSite (link below)! The possibilities are endless!